Former pro boxer, woman charged in Canada-wide lottery scam

A former elite boxer is facing additional charges and a woman has now been charged in connection with a lottery scam following a Canada-wide investigation.

Albert Egbe Onolunose, 34, was charged with five counts of possession of credit card data. He was previously charged with one count each of fraud over $5,000, using mail to defraud, and counterfeiting stamps in connection with the case. Onolunose is expected to appear in court Thursday.

Abeba Girma, 25, was charged with one count of identity theft and is scheduled to appear in court on June 23rd.

Onolunose — known as “The Punisher” in his fighting days after winning Nigeria’s national boxing championship five times before being invited to Calgary in 2001 — is also awaiting trial for another similar multimillion-dollar scam.

Police say the latest charges come after the pair were arrested on March 20th while officers executed a search warrant at an apartment in the 0 to 100 block of Glamis Drive S.W. for a different ongoing investigation with the economic crimes unit.

Onolunose was not the target of the search warrant, but officers pursued him after he and the woman fled by jumping from a second-floor balcony. The two were nabbed after a short foot chase.

“When the two offenders fled the residence, what happens was one of the offenders had two bags with them. Inside the bags were laptops and precursors for the fraudulent letters that supported the lottery scam,” said Staff Sgt. Kristie Verheul with the economic crimes unit.

As part of the scam, people would receive letters informing them they had won the lottery, but would be required to pay a sum of money to collect the entire winnings, Verheul said.

“Prior to receiving the money, they were asked to send percentages of that money, varying percentages of that money based on taxes calculated and administrative fees,” she said.

A more detailed investigation led police to a Canada Post sorting plant where they discovered 5,000 letters with the same counterfeit postage sent to what appears to be random addresses across Canada and the United States.

In the letter, winners were congratulated on their $2.6-million prize and also instructed to immediately contact a “winning claims agent” as the prize had to be processed and out of the lotto office within five business days of the file being opened.

“To avoid delay, prompt payment is necessary and you must keep this award confidential until your claim is processed and money is remitted into your account for your own safety,” the letter read. “This is to protect the security of this highly sensitive financial transaction and to eliminate the potential for duplicate or fraudulent claims.”

Verheul said some people did end up sending money, though the total amount lost and the total number of victims is still under investigation.

She added more people could be charged as the investigation moves forward.

She warned people not to fall for “easy-money scams” that require purported winners to send money to claim prizes.

“Unless you buy a ticket, in our experience, there’s no legitimate lottery that would ask you to pay prior to receiving your winnings,” she said.

Anyone who receives such a letter is urged to contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and the Calgary Police Service.

Onolunose and others — including his brother Jegbefumere (Bone Albert), who won a gold medal for Nigeria at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and competed in the 2000 Olympics — are currently awaiting trial for a scam from several years back.

Between 2005 and 2008, the group allegedly notified people in the United States by letter or phone that they’d won the lottery and would ask the victims to pay fees to collect their non-existent winnings.

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